Informed consent and ethical re-use of African genomic data

Rapid advances in human genomic research are increasing the availability of genomic data for secondary analysis. Particularly in the case of vulnerable African populations, ethics and informed consent processes need to be transparent-both to ensure participant protection, as well as to share skills and to evolve best practice for informed consent from a shared knowledge base. An open dialogue between all stakeholders can facilitate this.     

Starch: the need for improved quality or quantity--an overview

Starch is one of the most important plant products to man. It is an essential component of food providing a large proportion of the daily calorific intake and is important in non-food uses such as in adhesives. However, while much is known about the chemistry and pathways of synthesis for starch, there are major gaps in this knowledge so that it is not possible to modify the quantity or quality of starch produced by plants in a predictable way. While yield has improved markedly over the last century it is no longer improving faster than the growth in population and, at the same time, farmers' incomes in Europe have been falling, especially in the UK. Thus, production, even in Europe, is not much greater than demand. In the western world an increasing amount of the harvested crop is processed and, therefore, the quality of the raw product becomes an increasingly important issue. There is, therefore, an increasing need to combine the modern mathematical modelling tools with modern biochemical tools and the modern science of genomics.     

Emerging and reemerging infections in africa: the need for improved laboratory services and disease surveillance

Emerging and reemerging infections pose a serious public health threat to most countries of tropical Africa. In the past decade, epidemics of diseases including cholera, dysentery, meningitis, yellow fever and Ebola virus have resulted in significant morbidity and mortality. Improved laboratory services and disease surveillance systems are essential to monitor disease trends and to initiate public health action. The present situation of emerging and reemerging infections in Africa is described in this review, and strategies for improved disease surveillance and monitoring are discussed.     

A need for re-examination of the fibre diffraction data of A-DNA

A-DNA pattern, obtained using a flat plat camera, was indexed by Fuller $\text{et}\text{al}{}^6$ on the basis of a c-face centred monoclinic cell with a = 22.24 Å, b = 40.62 Å, c = 28.15 Å and β = 97.0°. A precession photograph of A-DNA which gives an undistorted picture of the lattice, showed that the unit cell parameters as given by Fuller $\text{et}\text{al}$ were not quite correct. The precession photograph showed a strong meridional reflection (R = 0.00 Å^?1) on the 11th layer line. But the occurrence of the meridional reflection on the 11th layer line could not be explained on the basis of the cell parameters given by Fuller $\text{et}\text{al}{}^6$; using those cell parameters the reflection which comes closest to the meridian on 11th layer line is at R = 0.025 Å^?1. However, a simple interchange of a and b values accounted for the meridional reflection on 11th layer line. The corrected cell parameter refined against 28 strong spots are a = 40.75 Å, b = 22.07 Å, c = 28.16 Å and β = 97.5°. In the new unit cell of A-DNA, the packing arrangement of the two molecules is different from that in the old one. Nonetheless, our earlier contention is again reaffirmed that both right and left-handed A-DNA are stereochemically allowed and consistent with the observed fibre pattern.     

New storage methods and improved trapping techniques for the parasitic nematode Neoaplectana carpocapsae

The parasitic nematode Neoaplectana carpocapsae had consistently high survival when it was stored at 3°C on moist filter paper ca. 1 year. Oxygen-enriched storage atmospheres were found unnecessary. During the second year of storage, mortality was a little higher, an average of ca. 37%. Storage for 19 months did not significantly reduce nematode infectivity. Survival during trapping was improved by controlling the number of cadavers per trap.     

Image data in need of a home

Recognized public community databases for image data deposition have been lacking so far. New databases are emerging that provide a promising infrastructure for hosting and distributing high content imaging datasets.     

Glutathione transferase superfamily behaves like storage proteins for dinitrosyl-diglutathionyl-iron complex in heterogeneous systems

Electron paramagnetic resonance and kinetics experiments have been made to determine the formation, stability, and fate of the natural nitric oxide carrier, dinitrosyl-diglutathionyl-iron complex (DNDGIC), in heterogeneous systems approaching in vivo conditions. Both in human placenta and rat liver homogenates DNDGIC is formed spontaneously from GSH, S-nitroso-glutathione, and trace amounts of ferrous ions. DNDGIC is unstable in homogenates depleted of glutathione S-transferase (GST); an initial phase of rapid decomposition is followed by a slower decay, which is inversely proportional to the concentration. In the crude human placenta homogenate, GSTP1-1, which represents 90% of the cytosolic GST isoenzymes, is the preferential target for DNDGIC. It binds the complex almost stoichiometrically and stabilizes it for several hours (t1/2 = 8 h). In the presence of an excess of DNDGIC, negative cooperativity in GSTP1-1 opposes the complete loss of the usual detoxicating activity of this enzyme. In the rat liver homogenate, multiple endogenous GSTs (mainly Alpha and Mu class isoenzymes) bind the complex quantitatively and stabilize it (t1/2 = 4.5 h); negative cooperativity is also seen for these GSTs. Thus, the entire pool of cytosolic GSTs, with the exception of the Theta GST, represents a target for stoichiometric amounts of DNDGIC and may act as storage proteins for nitric oxide. These results confirm the existence of a cross-link between NO metabolism and the GST superfamily.     

Asymmetrical topology and entropy-based heterogeneous link for many-core massive data communication

As the need for data processing and communication increases, and likewise, as the number of processing cores placed on a given single chip increases, improving the performance of interconnection networks is vital. In the present work, traditional topologies are re-examined. Torus is shown to be a good structure in terms of average latency and symmetry. When using torus in combination with high process levels, it is possible to design new, yet asymmetrical topologies that can meet the high communication performance requirements of many-core processors and also suit a large variety of traffic patterns. Firstly, this paper presents two novel and torus-like topologies called xtorus and xxtorus, which are evaluated by using both theoretical analysis and experimental simulation methods. For theoretical analysis, an algorithm for computing link path diversity and link entropy is given. The analysis shows that, compared with mesh, xmesh and torus, the proposed topologies have better properties in terms of diameter, average latency, throughput, and path diversity. Although more links are added, the number of links is of the same order of magnitude with that of mesh, xmesh, and torus. Proposed topologies also take advantage of increasingly higher levels of the VLSI process. Simulations on GEM5 reveal that xtorus has better scalability, and that its average latency is less than that of mesh, xmesh and torus by significant proportions respectively, particularly when the network scale is larger. Moreover, for different traffic patterns, its performance swing is less than that of mesh. Furthermore, in the present work, the proposed topologies are both asymmetrical and based on the entropy difference of the links in the topology. A strategy for heterogeneous link design is presented, which enables designers to trade off between delay, power and area according to a concrete integrated circuit design scene.     

An improved method for the analysis of data from radiation-inactivation studies

This paper addresses statistical issues in the estimation of protein molecular weight using radiation-inactivation assays. In particular it considers experiments in which a number of internal standards are used to supplement or replace accurate measurement of the applied doses of radiation. A mathematical model is proposed which allows the use of the standard technique of maximum-likelihood estimation to estimate the unknown molecular weight without knowledge of the applied doses and, in contrast to previous methods, allows the construction of confidence intervals.